Three New Faces Enter Race for City Council

Two members of Alexandria’s City Council have announced that they will not be running for reelection this year, paving the way for new faces in city leadership.

Accordin to Angela Turner, Director of Elections & General Registrar, three new candidates have filed their paperwork to run for City Council this year.

The new candidates so far are:

• Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi — an Engineering Project Manager at WMATA and Alexandria Democrats Vice Chair/Precinct Captain, according to his Twitter bio.
• Alyia Gaskins — a member of the Alexandria Transportation Commission and Agenda Alexandria, among other non-profits and organizations.
• Richard Kirk McPike — Chief of staff to Congressman Mark Takano and a member of the Budget And Fiscal Affairs Advisory Committee.

Each candidate is running for the June 8 Democratic primary before the November general election.

Councilwoman Redella “Del” Pepper announced late last year that, after 36 years on the council, she would not be running for reelection.

Alexandria Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker announced earlier this week that she would instead run for the 45th District seat, currently occupied by Del. Mark Levine. Levine has announced that he is running for Lieutenant Governor, but said he plans to run for reelection in his current role if he is not elected.

Incumbents do not always have to file new paperwork to run for reelection, but Turner noted that Canek Aguirre submitted a new statement of organization and Amy Jackson has submitted candidate filing paperwork.

Staff photo by James Cullum